Watch this Tamil theatre group's take on love in five different ways

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Hey Love daa

It's that time of the year again. Where roses are in abundance, heart-shaped chocolates adorn timelines and saccharine-sweet messages flood our inboxes. Keeping in mind the idea of love, three youngsters from Theatrekaran have penned down and directed five short plays in a mix of Tamil and English. Sabari, Raghav and Sriram draw inspiration from love stories around them, their own experiences and more.

Sabarivas VK, Sriram Jeevan, Raghavendr Siva

The trio met in school at Chettinad Vidyashram where they actively participated in plays and became part of the thespian community. They found themselves being really passionate about acting and soon joined the school drama club, Chettinad players. Much later in 2016, this band of boys started Theatrekaran with support from their drama club and school gurus. "This is only our second public show," says a visibly excited Sabari. "Our first play was in August called Mara. Mara had mythology at its core and revolved around Hanuman. We specialise in street plays and period full-length stage presentations and in recent times, we have been highlighting important social causes thereby inspiring people across all stratas to join the group and keep this form of art alive.” However, Hey, Love Daa will have five short plays all based on the different emotions that one feels when in love. "There's emotions, happiness, jealousy, anger and everything in between! We also have comedy, because I think love has a certain level of comedy to it," says Sabari.

Directed by different people in the group with each play depicting one emotion, they also have a musical as part of the set. "We have singers coming in from Airtel Super singer and it's going to be something that's really different! Plus, it's a mix of English and Tamil so everyone can understand it. That's the basic advantage of acting, isn't it? We enact what we write." The group took two months to put together the story, the props and the set. The 20-something year olds hope that people can relate to the show, especially because it's love. “They can even probably see themselves on stage. For the older generation, we are hoping to spark off a hint of nostalgia.”

We ask Sabari what theatre aficionados in the city can expect from the play today and he says with a smile, “ In a lifetime of chaos, we are going to give you an hour of love.”